>> My name is Dr. Donna L. Skerrett.
I am the Chief Medical Officer of Mesoblast Limited.
This is a stem cell and regenerative medicine company that develops therapies
for chronic debilitating diseases.
We are one of the leaders in stem cell therapy where we used a banked allogeneic stem cell
and deliver it either through intravenous infusion or through direct injections
for indications such as heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, some bone conditions
such as fractures that don't repair well, degenerative arthritic conditions.
We're also doing some work in some autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.
Our company is still in development, and so this work is all in clinical development in the U.S.
and other countries around the world.
The broad range of indications
that we're pursuing reflects the biological activity of these cells.
And the cell name is a mesenchymal cell.
It's found in your body in the bone marrow as well as in some tissues.
And they're innately known as cells that repair tissue damage and are capable of healing.
A typical day for me starts with meetings with my managers usually in the New York office.
I have oversight of about 14 clinical studies right now,
and they're in a broad range of indications.
So we have what we call product lines or specialists who are in individual areas.
I usually talk with them to get updates.
Often there are problems that need to be solved.
Typical problems that will come to my attention are any patients who have had reactions,
any physicians who have questions, deciding on what our next steps should be
in a development plan because we're developing products for licensure so we need
to meet the requests and the regulatory requirements of the U.S. and any other country
in the world where we hope to provide our therapy.
Trips to Australia, well, our company was founded in Australia.
It's a publically held country through the Australian stock exchange.
Our corporate, finance and legal headquarters are in Australia.
Additionally many of our developmental relationships with scientists
who are doing research that helps us identify areas
for new clinical development are based in Australia.
So I have ongoing meetings and discussions with scientists in that country to sort of chart
out what the future of development of our programs should be.
Obviously there are patent issues and legal is involved in these discussions.
But certainly much of our corporate activity is based in Australia.